An image taken of a window of a home raided by the Louisville Metro Police Department in March 2020. That raid ended in the death of 26-year-old Breonna Taylor. Photo Source: Craig Aguiar Photo Source: Craig Aguiar

An image taken of a window of a home raided by the Louisville Metro Police Department in March 2020. That raid ended in the death of 26-year-old Breonna Taylor. Photo Source: Craig Aguiar Photo Source: Craig Aguiar

An image taken of the front door of a home raided by the Louisville Metro Police Department in March 2020. That raid ended in the death of 26-year-old Breonna Taylor. Photo Source: Craig Aguiar

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – A suspected drug dealer Louisville police were looking for on the night they shot and killed EMT Breonna Taylor had made “frequent trips” to her home where he had been receiving packages, according to the search warrant allowing officers to raid Taylor’s home.

In addition, the search warrant said Jamarcus Glover used Taylor’s address as his home address and was observed by police picking up a package from her apartment in January before driving to a “known drug house.”

Taylor’s death has brought national scrutiny on Louisville police amid allegations officers botched the raid, shooting Taylor, a decorated EMT with no criminal record, while Glover had already been arrested at his home miles away.

The affidavit provides for the first time a police account of the circumstances that prompted a judge to approve the early-morning raid on Taylor’s apartment about 12 hours earlier.

In the request for a search warrant, police claim they believed Glover was using Taylor’s apartment on Springfield Drive to receive mail and “avoid detection from law enforcement.”

Det. Joshua Jaynes wrote that he believed Glover may be “keeping narcotics and/or proceeds from the sale of narcotics” at Taylor’s apartment.

Jaynes also claimed that police saw a vehicle Taylor used in front of Glover’s home on “different occasions.”

The warrant on Taylor’s home indicated police were looking for drugs, money, weapons, “paperwork that may be a record of narcotic sales” and any electronic records that may be evidence of drug trafficking.

Nothing illegal was found in Taylor's home. While Breonna Taylor was listed on the search warrant, her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, was not.

“There were no drugs found in that apartment. Breonna had a spotless record and Kenneth Walker is not even named in the warrant,” Walker’s attorney Rob Eggert said in an interview Tuesday. “The Commonwealth should dismiss the case on Kenneth Walker immediately.”

Sam Aguiar, an attorney for Taylor’s family, said Tuesday that the version of events put forth by police now appears to contradict itself. In applying for the warrant, police requested a "no-knock" entry to the apartment “due to the nature of how these drug traffickers operate,” including trying to destroy evidence and fleeing police.

Police have said they repeatedly knocked on the door and announced their presence but were eventually forced to bust through a door, where they were met with gunfire.

“LMPD can’t have it both ways. They immediately said they knocked and announced themselves. Now they applied for a no knock warrant,” Aguiar said. “Get your story straight. Which one was it?”

In addition, a subsequent search warrant affidavit the day after the shooting suggests that Taylor, and not Walker, fired at police. Walker fired a shot, believing the couple was being robbed, according to attorneys.

That warrant appears to come from internal investigators.

"As the detectives attempted to make entry subject inside the residence was armed with a unknown gun and fired shot striking a detective, Sgt. Omar Lee wrote in an affidavit. "In the course of protecting themselves and other civilians detectives returned gunfire and struck the subject unknown number of times. The subject collapsed inside the listed residence and subsequently pronounced deceased on scene."

Both Walker’s criminal defense attorney and attorneys for Taylor’s family claim the raid was improper and Glover had been arrested shortly before the raid.

“They were just desperate to get this guy and desperate to find him, but the reality is they did find him, arrested him, found drugs and then after that was done still barged into Breonna's home" and killed her, attorney Aguiar said.

Police say there is no body camera footage from the raid as officers in LMPD criminal interdiction division do not wear body cameras. The department has not responded to a question about why that division does not use the cameras.

A woman who lives next door said she woke up to the sound of gunshots and Walker yelling for help, according to an affidavit filed in court records. The woman said she never heard police announce themselves.

“All she heard was a ram (breaking through the door) and gunfire,” according to court records.

Aguiar said Taylor and Glover had once dated and were friends.

“At the end of the day, this was a botched drug raid looking for a person that they had already found,” he said.

On March 13, officers burst into Taylor’s home without knocking and "blindly fired" into it, spraying bullets into Taylor's apartment and neighboring units "with a total disregard for the value of human life," according to a lawsuit filed against police on Taylor’s behalf. Taylor, 26, was shot eight times.

Walker thought they were being robbed, according to his attorney, and fired at officers when they rushed in, hitting LMPD Sgt. John Mattingly in the leg. He is charged with attempted murder.

Police had been watching a house at South 24th Street and Elliott Avenue, where they believed Glover was trafficking drugs, since January 2 by using a “pole camera” at the intersection.

The investigation of the home began after multiple tips that there was drug activity at the Elliott Avenue house. Police witnessed 15 to 20 vehicles come and go from that location during a short period on January 2, police wrote in the affidavit.

On January 16, police witnessed Glover drive his red 2017 Dodge Charger to Taylor’s home on Springfield Drive and go inside her apartment, according to the request for a search warrant.

A short time later, according to Jaynes, Glover left the apartment with a “suspected USPS package in his right hand” and then drove to “a known drug house” on Muhammad Ali Blvd.

Det. Jaynes said police verified through the U.S. Postal Inspector that Glover had received packages at Taylor’s home.

Taylor, according to the lawsuit against police, did "nothing to deserve to die at their hands."

She was shot multiple times after officers used a battering ram to get into her home.

The suit filed by Taylor’s family names Mattingly and officers Brett Hankison and Myles Cosgrove as defendants. The officers are currently on administrative reassignment while the shooting is investigated. LMPD does not talk about pending litigation.

Walker was charged with attempted murder of a police officer.

Police initially said Taylor was a suspect but have not talked much about the case since, saying it is under investigation.

However, both Chief Steve Conrad and the police union criticized a judge for releasing Walker on home incarceration.

The lawsuit was filed late last month by local attorney Sam Aguiar. Now, civil rights attorney Ben Crump has joined the legal team. Crump is best known for representing the families of Michael Brown, Tamir Rice and most recently, Georgia jogger Ahmaud Arbery.

In an interview Monday evening, Aguiar said he hoped the litigation would spur a federal investigation of the incident and more answers from LMPD, which he said has been less than forthcoming about the case.

"I think that when the city and the mayor's office and the administration in the police department go out and flaunt transparency, it is incredibly hypocritical," Aguiar said. "Whether it's the mayor or Chief Conrad or somebody, an effort needs to be made to bring in the (Department of Justice) into situations like this to come in with an impartial eye and investigate these officers."

Bianca Austin, Taylor’s aunt, has said Walker had just accepted a job to work at UPS.

"These two were not drug dealers," she said. "It just don’t make sense to us at all."

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Jason Riley is a criminal justice reporter for WDRB.com. He joined WDRB News in 2013 after 14 years with The Courier-Journal. He graduated from Western Kentucky University. Jason can be reached at 502-585-0823 and jriley@wdrb.com.